Danny McBride Confirms ‘Halloween’ 2018 Details; Wants To Please Fans

With the highly anticipatednew Halloween movie, executive produced by John Carpenter and arriving in theaters in October 2018, about to begin filming, co-writer Danny McBride has just revealed a few new details about the project, mostly confirming what Carpenter already said, that the new film will in fact present an “alternate” version of events following the original 1978 Halloween, ignoring all existing sequels, and he’s really hoping it doesn’t “piss people off”.

Following last night’s series finale of HBO’s Vice Principals, the show’s creators McBride and his Rough House Pictures partner David Gordon Green will now turn their attention to Haddonfield and the upcoming return of Michael Myers to movie screens. Speaking to Yahoo today (Happy #MichaelMyersMonday!), McBride not only confirms what we already knew about the new timeline, but further confesses that he really hopes “we don’t f*** it up” for fans of the franchise.

Explaining how they got Jamie Lee Curtis to return as Laurie Strode, McBride says, “I’m a humongous Halloween fan, so when David and I got approached about doing this from Blumhouse, the first thing David and I said was, ‘We’ll come up with a take, but we have to pitch it to Carpenter. If he’s not interested, we’re definitely not into making this.’ And (executive producer) Jason Blum was totally on board with that. That’s exactly what he wanted to do anyway. So we came up with our pitch. We pitched to Carpenter, and he was into it, which kind of blew David and me away, but I still think nobody was really talking about Jamie. I think everyone was kind of on the mindset of it’d be a grab to get her, but no one really knew if we would be able to.

“So Dave and I just busted our ass on this script to really make that Laurie Strode character something she wouldn’t be able to say no to. When we finished the script, we sent it to her, and she said she was in. So we just flipped out. We were over the moon about her involvement.”

Further confirming what we already know, McBride says, “We’re kind of ignoring all the films past the first one. It picks up after the first one, but it’s sort of an alternate reality. It’s as if the first Halloween ended in a slightly different way.”

Expressing a refreshing desire to honestly please the most hardcore fans of the franchise, McBride says, “I just hope that we don’t f*** it up and piss people off. This is such a diehard fan base. You don’t want horror fans being your enemies because they show up at your house with masks on.

“We are diehard fans of Halloween. We’re watching all the sequels and where things have taken left turns here and there that maybe bites for fans, and at least trying to deliver what we would have wanted to see. Hopefully that will line up with most fans.

“I think you should be very scared. I mean, this isn’t a comedy at all. I think there was, like, maybe one joke on the page, but the rest is straight horror. So hopefully it gets in people’s heads and keeps them up late at night.”

Judy Greer was recently reported to be in talks to play Karen Strode, who is Laurie Strode’s daughter in the new film. We’re still awaiting official cast announcements, which should be forthcoming imminently.

As we recently reported, Halloween 2018 will begin filming any day now in Charleston, South Carolina.

Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

Master of horror John Carpenter will executive produce and serve as creative consultant on this film, joining forces with cinema’s current leading producer of horror, Jason Blum (Get Out, Split, The Purge, Paranormal Activity). Inspired by Carpenter’s classic, filmmakers David Gordon Green and Danny McBride crafted a story that carves a new path from the events in the landmark 1978 film, and Green also directs.

Halloween will be produced by Malek Akkad, whose Trancas International Films has produced the Halloween series since its inception. Green and McBride will executive produce under their Rough House Pictures banner.

As I’m sure you are well aware, 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of John Carpenter’s original 1978 Halloween. It is also worth noting that the film’s release date also happens to be Michael Myers’ birthday (in 1957), according to the original franchise canon.